Who is William ‘Mo’ Cowan?

William “Mo” Cowan (center) is Governor Deval Patrick’s choice to fill John Kerry’s seat until a permanent replacement is elected on June 25. Cowan, 43, was first hired by Patrick as his legal counsel in 2009 and was then promoted to chief of staff in 2010. Cowan stepped down from the job last November.
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Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

Patrick and Cowan built up a strong friendship over the years, in part, because both men have risen from difficult childhoods to prominence in Boston and in the state. Patrick also served as a mentor to Cowan when both were practicing lawyers.
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David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Cowan is a North Carolina native and Duke University graduate who came to Boston to attend Northeastern University Law School in the early 1990s — and never left the region.
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Darren McCollester

Cowan grew up in a largely segregated tobacco town in rural North Carolina, the son of a machinist and a seamstress. As a boy, he watched the Ku Klux Klan burn a cross in town, march on his high school, and hand out literature on Main Street. Cowan is pictured with his wife, Stacy, and his sons Grant (left) and Miles.
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Darren McCollester

One of the city’s leading African-American lawyers, Cowan is a former partner in the politically connected law firm of Mintz Levin. Cowan will become the first African-American to represent Massachusetts in the Senate since Edward Brooke held the seat as a Republican from 1966 to 1978.
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Jonathan Wiggs

In nearly two decades in Boston, Cowan became a popular mentor for young black professionals and a talent scout frequently called upon to help diversify the city’s institutions. Pictured: Cowan spoke with Cynthia Francois, the biological mother of a Mattapan murder victim, following the Mattapan murder trial verdict on March 22, 2012.
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Darren McCollester

Cowan helped Governor Mitt Romney, who faced criticism for the lack of diversity in his judicial picks, identify lawyers of color who would make good judges. He recruited black lawyers for law firm Mintz Levin and for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.
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